Why IBM's Non-GAAP Reporting Isn't as Bad as People Are Saying
Astute IBM (NYSE: IBM) shareholders probably saw the headlines. Jim Chanos, president and founder of Kynikos Associates, recently claimed in an interview with CNBC that the aging tech giant isn't nearly as profitable as it appears to be on the surface. Chanos suggested the company's effective bottom line for the past year is only a little better than half of the profits being reported. He described the disparity as "financial engineering," and though he didn't explicitly levy the accusation against IBM, the IBM-centric conversation included the phrase "sometimes the greatest scams are hiding right in plain sight through the use of pro forma accounting."
As is so often the case, though, there's more to the story.
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Source Fool.com
